modernistic rhino are descendants of even larger creatures , estimated to have matter 15 - 20 tonnes ( 16 - 22 tons ) and stood almost 5 meters ( 16 feet ) at the shoulder . Their drumhead were probably as in high spirits as Giraffa camelopardalis ' while matter two to three times as much as an African elephant . The discovery of one of these leviathans on the sharpness of the Tibetan Plateau has help fill up gaps in their family Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
Most people golden enough to encounter a penis of the genusParaceratherium(the largest rhino genus ) would not recognise them as rhino , since they lacked motor horn , normally considered the define feature of speech of being a rhino . Such minor matter are of little grandness to paleontologists , however , who can spot the honest identity under the peel .
example ofParaceratheriumhave been found across large areas of Asia , but have usually been so fragmentary it has been difficult to determine which represented common coinage and which were something dissimilar .
A newParaceratheriumskull , mandible , and vertebrae from another member of the same mintage have been found in the Linxia Basin , on Tibet ’s Union - due east boundary , detailed inCommunications Biology . They date from 26.5 million years ago , and have been namedP. linxiaense . Dr Tao Dengof the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co - authors look at their new discovery ’s faithful relative to beP. lepidum , a slimly smaller species live at the same time . However , they fence it “ has a tight relationship ” withP. bugtiense , the only species from which we have had enough fogy to describe with sureness .
P. linxiaense’slocation and features allow the authors to propose a agate line of descent from in the beginning , smaller but still elephantine rhinos , whose relationship toP. bugtiensehad been unclear . The connexion also tell us something about the timing of the Tibetan plateau ’s rise .
Back in the Oligocene ( 33.9 - 23 million years ago ) the plateau , and indeed the whole of Asia , was very different to today . India ’s collision with Asia was recent , so the tableland was not as high . Meanwhile , much of what is now central Asia was still covered by the Tethys Sea .
The relationship betweenP. linxiaenseandP. bugtienseindicates there were ways to get from Pakistan to China for creatures such as these at the time . Paraceratheriumevolved in China , the authors reason , before crossing the incomplete plateau to reach its most famous form in Pakistan .
“ The Tibetan region likely host some areas with depleted elevation , possibly under 2000 meters ( 6,600 foot ) during Oligocene , ” the theme concludes , “ And the lineage of giant rhino could have dispersed freely along the eastern seacoast of the Tethys Ocean and perhaps through some lowlands of this area . ”
Like otherParaceratherium , the author thinkP. linxiaenselived in undecided woodlands where it could browse the tops of trees .
